


Above all else (I will) guard your heart

by pollitt



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-03
Updated: 2012-03-03
Packaged: 2017-11-01 01:16:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/350370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pollitt/pseuds/pollitt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every night, Clint looks and Phil watches.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Above all else (I will) guard your heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sirona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirona/gifts).



> Who had a bad day, so I found Clint and Phil and we mused in hopes of bringing a smile.
> 
>  
> 
> The title is a modified quote from Proverbs 4:23 -- " _Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life._ "

Every night, Clint stands at the window and observes. (And if there isn’t a window, he’ll stare through the flap of the tent or the front windshield of the car--whatever it is that allows him to see his surroundings.)

Every night, Clint looks and Phil watches him, sometimes openly and sometimes covertly, although he is operating under no illusion that Clint isn’t fully aware of his gaze. 

Phil has never asked what it is Clint’s looking for or looking at. He has his ideas, of course. It is, after all, Agent Coulson’s job to know everything there is to know about the Avenger--from their grade school report card to their latest psych eval--and it doesn’t take a special agent to guess that a sharpshooter, a man who regularly goes up against trans- and inter-dimensional opponents, would always be aware of his surroundings, of what might lurk in the shadows. 

He doesn’t know what Clint looks for, but what Phil does know, is that after his vigil is complete, when Clint slides back into bed, there is a change that he can see and feel and hear. How the muscles of Clint’s neck and shoulders will relax with a quiet _shh_ as they brush against the sheets, his jaw softening as he not-quite smiles. 

It’s in those few minutes that Clint Barton is at his most vulnerable. Phil is a trained agent of SHIELD, he knows how to recognize the momentary lowering of armor and how to use it to his advantage. 

Phil reaches out and slides his fingers along Clint’s jaw, feeling the tiny twitch of muscle under his fingertips as though this were there first time (nevermind that it’s not by a long shot, and before this there had been years of friendship and trust which led to this, to them.) Phil tilts Clint’s face so they’re looking eye-to-eye, and when he leans in, before Clint’s mouth meets his and they forget everything else but _touch_ and _taste_ and _feel_ , he smiles and Clint returns the grin and they know there is nothing to fear.


End file.
